Clock (R16, 93mins) Directed by Alexis Jacknow ***½
The Colour Authority. That’s the headline that screams from the latest edition of Tribeza magazine, above a profile of interior designer Ella Patel (Dianna Agron).
Increasingly in demand amongst Austin’s elite for her ability to transform a space, she not only has a fantastic career, but her own beautiful home and adoring husband Aidan (Jay Ali).
However, as everyone keeps reminding her, she’s now 37 and is still yet to start a family. For her, it’s a conscious decision – “who wants to be constantly covered in throw-up and clean-up shit? That’s your reward? Even if you make it through the birth?” – that although Aidan claims to understand, other women react with downright hostility towards.
The barrage of invasive questions and unwanted advice mostly fail to leave a mark, especially when Ella has the more pressing concern of wanting to ensure she doesn’t suffer the same breast cancer-related fate as her mother did at the same age.
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But while receiving a specialist medical exam from one of Aidan’s colleagues – Dr. Webber (Nikita Patel) – the subject of her fertility comes up once again. Challenging Ella’s initial assertion that “I just don’t think I’m quite ready yet”, with “unfortunately, you don’t get to be quite ready yet”, Webber also counters her belief that she doesn’t have a biological clock, with the pithy observation that “maybe it’s just broken”.
Between that and her father Joseph’s (True Romance’s Saul Rubinek) nagging that his only offspring is condemning the family line to extinction, Ella eventually begins to wonder if maybe she should rethink her stance.
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In Clock, a constant stream of baby showers and pushy pregnant pals begins to take its toll on Ella Patel (Dianna Agron).
So, at the suggestion of Webber, she secretly enrols in a 10-day clinical trial run by the mysterious Dr. Elizabeth Simmons (The Office US’ Melora Hardin). But as the intense cognitive therapy and cocktail of “hormone-balancing” medications starts to kick in, Ella begins to get increasingly paranoid, suffers from hallucinations and suddenly starts questioning if she’s losing her grip on reality.
Despite assurances that it’s all a normal part of the process, Ella isn’t so sure, and is having second thoughts about the permanent implant that she’s being persuaded to take back home with her.
While a fascinating meditation on human nature and modern-day mores around childbirth, Clock is most definitely not your conventional crowd-pleasing horror.
Yes, there is plenty of nightmarish imagery, psychological terrors abound, and it all builds to a vivid, visceral and squirm-inducing finale, but writer-director Alexis Jacknow’s feature debut (inspired by her 2020 short-film of the same name) also offers multiple interpretations of its densely layered storyline – and no easy answers.
You could read it as a kind of anti-Rosemary’s Baby, an allegory for the Holocaust, or even a deeply dark satire of the wellness industry.
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At the heart of Clock, is a barnstorming, bravura turn from former Glee star Dianna Agron that is most definitely not easily forgotten.
Its obtuseness may be a turn-off for some viewers (as will the heavy-handedness of some of the symbolism and metaphors), but there’s no denying that, thanks to its artful flourishes (the Pleasantville-esque contrast of drained and vibrant colours slowly creeps up on you, before delivering a truly impactful punch) and thought-provoking, compelling storytelling, it’s a film that lingers – and plays on your mind.
At the heart of it all, is a barnstorming, bravura turn from former Glee star Agron that is most definitely not easily forgotten.
Clock is now available to stream on Disney+.
